Just In Time

For years now, we’ve been working alongside of our university to open a clinic with laboratory/testing capabilities. So many setbacks… the equipment, donated by a German organization, sat in a port in Tanzania for more than a year while being held hostage due to needed “fees.” Then, it sat again in Uvira, DRC, as the way up the mountain to here was impeded due to a limited three-month window when the road was dry enough for transport, and even then the road was nearly impossible due to Mai-Mai rebel groups. In time, grants and donations were eventually received, the equipment arrived, and a water retaining tank and clean water system was built and then piped to the clinic and other areas. Through the hard work of many, Phase One of the project was completed. We are all very grateful to those of you that helped with the needed funding.

On May 12, 2021, the clinic, lab, and pharmacy was opened to the public and has been serving the community non-stop ever since. Recently, the government reclassified the clinic as a hospital; Emilee prefers to refer to the facility as The Research Hospital and Medical Center.

The hospital administrator addressing the public.

The mayor cutting the ribbon.

It didn’t take the hospital long to go from an opening-day tour (far left) to being full of patients and doing lab work.

Besides the administrator, who is also the director of the nursing program at the university, the hospital has two doctors, two laboratory technicians, and five nurses (far left). The hospital also has a volunteer engineer and contractor named Miles Ostrander who worked hard installing the solar power and the generator needed to light the facility and to power the equipment.

The timing of the opening of the hospital has been quite providential. Over the past two years, the refugee population here has grown, taxing the local food resources and an already weak medical system. Add to this that the most recent wave of conflict has left many people unable to get to their crops, or their crops have been harvested or destroyed by the Mai-Mai and the DRC soldiers. There are a lot of hungry and sick people here, and now many people wounded from the conflict that has escalated over the past two weeks.

Somehow!

Michael